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Trades Alberta: Skills centre focuses career choices

Apprentices Charles O’Hara and Cristian Vega work together on a strut assembly at the automotive service/autobody repair shop at St. Joseph High School in Edmonton on Jan. 22, 2013.

Photograph by: Jason Franson
, CP

EDMONTON - The Career Skills Centre at St. Joseph High School encompasses numerous classrooms and multiple floors, with facilities for autobody repair, baking, cosmetology, welding and more.

Teachers who also hold journeyperson status instruct various levels of classes at the Edmonton high school, enabling students to get a more complete diploma, said Lyle Cruise, co-ordinator of the career skills centre.

“We want to bring students to advanced standing in the trades and technology, to be on the leading edge.”

The centre, at 10830 109 St., is a site for technical and trade education and is available to all students in the Edmonton Catholic School District, not only the 1,000 plus who attend St. Joseph.

“It’s our hope with the skills centre approach that in Grade 10 students will do exploratory learning at their home school, then they can access the skill centre for further education,” said Cruise, who has taught at St. Joseph for 34 years.

The centre also serves students in Ascension Collegiate, a high school completion and post-secondary preparation program for students in their fourth year of high school.

Tianna Morin is an Ascension student who wants to become a mechanic.

“I’m not into sitting at a desk. I like to fix things,” said Morin, 18.

Inside the automotive service area of St. Joseph, Morin is gaining experience and confidence in her chosen career field as she works on vehicles brought in by customers.

“I love it. I’m getting to do things here that I probably wouldn’t be doing anywhere else,” she said.

Cruise said while the high school has always had facilities for a robust Career and Technology Studies (CTS) program, funding announced under the Stelmach government in 2008 allowed the school to expand its program and upgrade equipment. The new facilities, renamed the Career Skills Centre, opened in September 2012.

“To be current with the technology that industry is using is key,” Cruise said.

Boris Radyo, assistant superintendent of educational planning for Edmonton Catholic Schools, said the school’s central location helps students from across the city access what’s inside.

“It really allows them to explore those trades in a lot of detail and very in-depth and it gives them hands-on experience both in the school and in the workforce, in areas that are in very, very high demand. It’s an entry right into the workforce,” he said.

Expanded programming includes a dual enrolment health care aide program, which allows students to earn high school and post-secondary credits at the same time.

Technology inside the centre is current; a school tour reveals spaces that look more like industry workshops than high school classrooms.

A large facility for building construction/cabinetry is second-to-none, said Cruise.

“When they first built this they built it big, and it has allowed us to have equipment you wouldn’t get elsewhere, because other rooms are too small,” Cruise said.

The cosmetology lab has everything you would find in a full-service salon. Students offer services including manicures, pedicures, facials, haircuts and perms to clients.

Over at the culinary arts space, students learn about entertaining with food and compete against each other with their food platters. A fully functional bakery contains industrial freezers filled with cakes, pastries and pies made by students, under the guidance of their teacher, who is also a journeyman baker.

Students in the health care aide program learn in a classroom equipped with the kinds of beds, lifts and wheelchairs that exist in the health care centres in which they’ll eventually work.

The school also offers programs in communication technology and fashion and design. The many options allow students to get a more complete high school diploma, one in tune with student interests, Cruise said.

As the skills centre becomes more entrenched in the school and district, linkages with industry are starting to develop.

“What the school is looking at now is developing partnerships to enhance and expand those vocational programs, including partnerships with some of the trades groups in the city and businesses in the city,” Radyo said.

Cruise hopes to see the centre grow — both in the number of students it serves and the programs it offers.

“We have the facilities, the equipment and materials, the industry-trained teachers,” said Cruise, adding he’d like to see summer courses and evening sessions offered at St. Joseph.

That would benefit even more students, helping them develop the skills they’ll need to challenge the apprenticeship entrance exam, enter post-secondary institutions, develop a portfolio and find a work placement.

“We have students that are going out there to be willing and ready workers. We train them so they can step in and be productive on the job site immediately,” Cruise said.

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